Median net worth by age
The typical family’s net worth rises with age to a peak at 65–74: $39,040 when the family’s reference person is under 35, $135,300 at 35–44, $246,700 at 45–54, $364,270 at 55–64 and $410,000 at 65–74, before easing to $334,700 at 75 and older. Across all ages the median was $192,700 in 2022, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
These are medians: half of the families in each group had less and half had more. Each age group is a different set of families in the same year, not one family followed over a lifetime.
Average net worth by age
Averages are several times the medians because a small number of very wealthy families pull them up. The average family was worth $1,059,470 in 2022, more than five times the median. By age the averages run from $183,380 under 35 to $1,780,710 at 65–74. For a sense of what is typical, the median and the percentiles are the better guide.
What net worth is top 10% or top 1%?
In 2022 a family needed about $1.94 million to reach the top 10%, $3.8 million for the top 5% and $13.6 million for the top 1%, roughly 1.3 million families. The survey leaves out the Forbes 400 by design. Within each age group the bar is lower for the young: the top 10% of families under 35 started at $372,220, against about $3 million at 65–74. The calculator above places any figure among families of the same age and among all families.
How many families are millionaires?
18.0% of families had a net worth of $1 million or more in 2022, nearly 1 in 5. The share climbs with age, from 2.1% of families under 35 to 20.6% at 45–54 and 28.5% at 65–74. Families with $10 million or more were 1.6% of all families.
Negative net worth
7.5% of families owed more than they owned in 2022. Negative net worth is most common among the young: 16.9% of families under 35, against 2.0% at 75 and older.
How net worth has changed
Median family net worth rose from $141,140 in 2019 to $192,700 in 2022, both in 2022 dollars, an increase of about 37% that the Federal Reserve called the largest three-year increase in the modern survey’s history. Families under 35 saw the biggest jump, from $16,230 to $39,040. Over the longer run the all-family median climbed from $108,500 in 1989 to $173,150 in 2007, fell to $103,610 by 2013 after the 2007–2009 recession, and has risen in every survey since.
What counts as net worth
Net worth is everything a family owns minus everything it owes. Assets include bank and retirement accounts, stocks, bonds and funds, the family home and other real estate, vehicles and business equity; debts include mortgages, home equity lines, student and car loans and credit card balances. Social Security and traditional defined-benefit pensions are not counted. The survey measures families, meaning the economically dominant single person or couple and anyone financially dependent on them, and sorts them by the age of a reference person: the single person, or in a couple the male partner of a mixed-sex couple or the older partner of a same-sex couple.
Where the numbers come from
The Federal Reserve Board’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances interviewed 4,602 families; the public data file holds 4,595 of them, weighted to represent 131.3 million families. The medians, averages and history above are the Board’s public-data Table 4, in 2022 dollars. The percentiles, millionaire shares and top thresholds are our calculation from the same public file with the same weighted method, which reproduces every median and average in that table; the method is on our methodology page. The Board’s own report, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2019 to 2022, uses the full internal data, so its figures differ slightly. Every percentile by age is in the CSV above.
Good questions
What is the average net worth by age?
In 2022 the average family net worth was $183,380 under 35, $548,070 at 35–44, $971,270 at 45–54, $1,564,070 at 55–64, $1,780,710 at 65–74 and $1,620,100 at 75 and older, in the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. The wealthiest families pull these averages far above the medians.
What is the median net worth by age?
$39,040 under 35, $135,300 at 35–44, $246,700 at 45–54, $364,270 at 55–64, $410,000 at 65–74 and $334,700 at 75 and older, in 2022. Half of the families in each age group had less.
What net worth puts you in the top 1%?
About $13.6 million in 2022. The top 10% started at about $1.94 million and the top 5% at about $3.8 million. These are family figures from the Federal Reserve’s survey, which leaves out the Forbes 400.
What percentage of families are millionaires?
18.0% of U.S. families had a net worth of $1 million or more in 2022, from 2.1% of families under 35 to 28.5% at 65–74.
How many families have a negative net worth?
7.5% of U.S. families owed more than they owned in 2022, and 16.9% of families under 35.
What counts in net worth?
Everything a family owns, such as bank and retirement accounts, stocks and funds, homes, vehicles and business stakes, minus everything it owes, such as mortgages, student and car loans and credit card balances. The survey leaves out Social Security and traditional defined-benefit pensions.